On the 29th of September 2023, the Department of Political Sciences of the Sapienza University of Rome hosted the final conference of the project Val.UE.s.
The conference was held by academic historians and history teachers from the four EU member states that are part of the project partnership and from Albania. The conference was aimed at Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD students, as well as lecturers and teachers from different faculties, and people who were interested in the project thematic.
At the beginning of the conference, the rationale and background of both the EU-funded Val.UE.s. Project and the EU Commission's CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) Programme was introduced to the conference attendees by Luca Micheletta, Professor of History of International Relations at the Sapienza University of Rome and Scientific Coordinator of the project ValUEs for the Consorzio Sapienza Innovazione, Augusto D’Angelo, Professor of Contemporary History at the Sapienza University of Rome, Giulia Bianchi, Post-Doc at the Sapienza University of Rome, Eva Christina Müller-Praefcke, Post-Doc at the Sapienza University of Rome, Alessandra Gatta, project manager at the Istituto Luigi Sturzo of Rome, and Marica Gagliardi, project manager at the Europe Desk of the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo. As a result of these introductory speeches, the attendees had the opportunity to get deeply acquainted with the project’s activities and results.
After this first set of speeches, in line with the main topic of the project, the conference dealt with the issue of the impact that discriminatory practices and legislation introduced in many European countries during the “era of totalitarism” had on the private lives of individuals through some speeches that analysed actual historical cases.
Specifically, Edlira Titini, lecturer at the Armed Forces Academy of Tirana, spoke about the Jewish community in Albania in the first half of the 20th Century, and how it was affected by acts of discrimination during the occupation of Albania by Fascist Italy in World War II, with a special focus on how the Albanian historiography dealt with this subject.
After that, Andrea Ventura, history teacher at the Aristofane High School of Rome and PhD candidate at the Doctorate in Political Studies of the Sapienza University of Rome , illustrated the complex issue of the “Righteous Among the Nations”, presenting the case of an Italian police officer who saved many foreign Jews in Italy during the Second World War thanks to his role as head of the desk for foreign nationals of the Police of Rome.
Andrea Griffante, Senior Research Fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History and at Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas, through the analysis of some case-studies presented an account of Lithuanian perspective on discriminations that affected both Lithuanians and the neighbouring populations.
Cezar Gheorghe, lecturer at the Center of Excellence in Image Study of the University of Bucharest, dwelled on how visual materials are used to document traumatic historical events. Focusing on the Romanian Holocaust, through the analysis of some explicative case-studies he then explained how archival footage can be exploited as a means to establish particular narratives about historical events.
Finally, Imre Tarafás, lecturer at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, retraced the historical origins of discriminatory ideologies that took root in Europe between the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular reference to the Austrian and German dimension. In doing so, he took into account the life and activities of the historian and journalist Heinrich Friedjung.
At the conclusion of the conference, Prof. Luca Micheletta gave a end of project speech, summing up the outcome of the conference and of the the project Val.UE.s overall.
The conference proceedings will be published by the end of 2023 as an open-access book that will be downloadable through the project's website.
